Torpedo Boats

The development of German torpedo boats of World War II was centered around the classic concept of using those kind of ships similar to World War I. The key idea was to execute torpedo attacks on other, bigger surface vessels as it was done during the Battle of Jutland in 1916.

While the first new torpedo boats build after World War I were basically small destroyers with an adequate mix of artillery and torpedo armament, those designs build in the mid 1930s were totally focused on torpedo attacks. When it got obvious that those kind of attacks were not possible anymore during World War II, those ships proved to be almost useless for other operations. Therefore the last Fleet torpedo boat designs returned to a ship equal to a small destroyer.

The Torpedo boats were used in several different ways, for escort duty, mine laying, surface patrols or U-boat training, of the 51 ships build, only 12 survived the war. Some of them were handed over to allied navies and used until the mid 1950s.

Torpedoboot 1923

These were the first six torpedo boats build in Germany after World War I.

Torpedoboot 1924

The so called "Raubtier" class consisted of 6 ships and was a the second torpedo boat class build after World War I.

Torpedoboot 1935

A total of 12 boats of the Torpedoboot 1935 class were build.

Torpedoboot 1937

The 9 boats of the Torpedoboot 1937 class were a slightly improved version of the Torpedoboot 1935 ships.

Flottentorpedoboot 1939

A class of 15 big torpedo boats which would be called destroyer escorts in other navys.